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Temporary/Short Term Health Insurance information

Many women at some point in their lives are faced with the situation of being between jobs, or for whatever reason, may need to buy temporary or short term health insurance coverage. Divorce is often often one of those reasons. Some women have their health insurance covered through their husbands, through his workplace. If you don't have job that offers health insurance, or are self-employed or a stay at home mom and your husband wants a divorce - you could have a really big problem!

The best solution would be to start looking for an individual health insurance plan, but until you can get one, you still need to be insured. Never go even a day without health insurance - it just isn't worth the risk!

So what can you do? While waiting you can apply for temporary or short term health insurance. This type of insurance isn't great, but it is better than none at all. Some problems with it include that once the coverage period ends - you are completely without insurance , even if you are in the middle of major health crisis. Also, short term health insurance won't cover any preexisting conditions. Temporary insurance usually doesn't give you any coverage if you are outside the United States. Of course this may not be an issue if you know you won't be leaving the country.

Temporary health insurance is usually sold for fixed time periods of something like 30, 60, 90 or 120 days (sometimes 180 days are also available). This is also great if you will be between jobs for a while. Although, if you have COBRA insurance available from your old job, you should use it instead of temporary health insurance. It is just better in a number of ways.

If COBRA is not an option for whatever reason, then short term insurance may be just what you are looking for! It usually covers you for at least one million and you can choose what doctor you want. But of course, the reasons mentioned above can be a problem.

Since it usually takes 30-60 to get an application for individual insurance approved, temporary insurance is great to use for this period of time while you are waiting.

If you have kid that need to be insured also, this can make the problem more complex. Most of the time, if your ex-husband has coverage at work, your kids will be covered through his policy. Then you just have yourself to be concerned with.

Otherwise, you can get your kids on an individual policy also to make sure they are insured.
In summary - never go without health insurance, even after a divorce. Buy short term insurance if necessary, but then apply for an individual coverage also. And use COBRA if you can!